One Fateful Day
by Love Hina Addict
Summary: Death can be so sudden, so quick and so very emotional. Experiencing death, however, is a completely different category. How will the group fare when one of their own falls victim to a fate as such? No pairings, deathfic.


**One Fateful Day.**

_**Note: I do not own anything to do with Azumanga Daioh. I only own this fan fiction story.**_

**I'm back, if only for a little while, and with me comes a new story idea. This one came to me whilst I was trying to get to sleep last night, and decided to put it into action. Beware that it does involve a tragic turn of events. With that said, on with the story!**

(-o-)

Time had seemed to pass by rather slowly, as the girls were sitting inattentively, with the exception of Chiyo and Yomi, in English class. Yukari had been teaching for what seemed like a couple of hours, before the end of session bell began to ring. Without further ado, everyone in the room packed up their belongings and proceeded to leave the vicinity. Kagura and Tomo were the first to leave, giving no regard to the rest of their companions.

"Um, Osaka? We can leave now, let's go," asked Chiyo to her best friend, who seemed to be in another one of her trances. A few seconds passed, until the day dreaming girl had recalled what she had said, before proceeding to stand up.

"Ah, Chiyo," replied Osaka, still a little sleepy in appearance. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?" said a confused Chiyo.

"It's about your pigtails...You can fly, right? Using them, I mean?" questioned Osaka, in her usual tone of voice. Chiyo sweat-dropped, before tentatively answering her.

"No, of course I can't. Let's go."

With that, the two exited the room and turned a series of corridors before finally leaving the front school gate. After leaving, they spotted Sakaki standing by a tree, with her hand lifted higher up towards her face on the street. There was a slight red area, from what looked like a bite mark. The two onlookers rushed over to her.

"Hi, Miss Sakaki," cheerfully asked Chiyo, but not getting an immediate answer. "...Are you okay, Miss Sakaki?"

"...Oh, hello," muttered the tall girl, before lowering her hand back down to her side. Thoughts of the cat, Kamineko, were flooding her mind too quickly for her to give proper consideration that her two friends were there.

"Did you hurt your finger?" asked Osaka, who had noticed after about a minute.

"It was that cat..." replied Sakaki quietly, before starting to walk home. Chiyo noticed that she walked most of the way Sakaki did, and offered to walk with her.

"Okay, sure," said Sakaki, with Osaka running up behind the pair, asking to walk too.

For the most part, the walk home was as uneventful as it usually comes, with the odd one or two cats appearing here or there. The sounds of birds chirping happily that afternoon were easily heard. Small talk, mostly involving things like cats and Osaka's opinions, were expressed as they walked, until they reached the crossroads at which Osaka had to walk a separate way. They waved goodbye, before parting ways.

The rest of the walk went by in relative comfort, until the sounds of the birds chirping slowly came to a rather distressing stop. All around the duo, no sounds could be heard, until the sound of running came from behind them, and apparently towards them.

"W-what's that? I'm scared..." exuded Chiyo, now with a show of worry plastered on her face. Sakaki, witnessing this, put her hand on the shoulder of the trembling girl, before quickly pivoting on the spot after hearing the sound of a twig snapping.

"Who's there!?" shouted Sakaki, now very worried about this presence. A few minutes passed, before no more sounds were heard. After reassuring Chiyo that the danger seemed to have passed, they resumed their walk home, but with an unsettling aura hanging over them.

Finally after walking the rest, Chiyo was still upset about the recent turn of events. It took Sakaki some wit to coax her into a comfortable mood, before they had to separate their ways as well.

Sakaki, at this point, had walked nearly the complete distance to her home, but felt an unusual feeling in her stomach. One that seemed linked to the day in one way or another. She grimaced at the sensation, before coming to a halt. An onlooker glanced at her from across the street, before Sakaki realised just what she had been doing, standing still like that. She hurried her pace to her front door, and opened it, entering the building.

Meanwhile, Chiyo was glued to the same spot for all of the five minutes of what Sakaki had been doing. Fear was entering her body, and her mind was now playing tricks on her, forcing her to look all around her at the faintest sound of anything.

Seconds passed, before the running sound returned, once again getting louder as time flew by. Chiyo gulped, and turned in the general direction of the oncoming torrent. What she saw was nothing more then a little girl, of around ten years, being chased by two others. She internally scolded herself for being so nonchalant, before taking a deep breath. She continued her way home, until she made it to the grand entrance.

The activities of the afternoons, evenings and nights of the girls that day had passed by with no great differences. Studying for Chiyo, reading about cute things by Sakaki and Osaka generally being _herself_. The morning came quicker then anyone had wanted, as the thought of school was the last thing on their minds.

Leaving her home, Chiyo has seemed to have forgotten about the incidents yesterday, regarding it as the children running. She proceeded out of the front gate of her manor, petted Mr. Tadakichi and started her walk to school.

The walk every morning was something that she had come to love, as the scenery was always something that made her calm. Today was slightly different.

The usual accompaniment of birds tweeting, the normal appearance of groups of people rushing to school and the sounds of people walking their dogs. All of these aspects seemed to be missing. _Something_ was not right here.

Her walk began, albeit a little slow, as she walked up the familiar alleyways which provided a good shortcut. Her balance slightly thrown off by her mind, she missed her footing and fell to the floor. Getting to her feet, she checked herself for injury.

"Come on, Chiyo...Look where you're going," she chanted, before the sound of running began once again, although this time is seemed slower, like walking.

With her heart beginning to race at the sheer notice of the deepening noise, she hastily picked up her pace. She started looking around as she walked for any signs of life, anything that would make her feel as though she was not alone. _Anyone_. Her prayers were not answered as in every direction she faced, either a wall was blocking exit or there was no one there.

Facing this fact, and as the steps were getting louder, she turned a half circle to see if she could see anyone. Not a thing. The steps kept recurring themselves, each step burrowing into her mind like a shovel in mud, until finally she caved in from the pressure. Emitting a shrill scream, she shut her eyes tight and hoped that something, _anything_, would have heard her. The footsteps stopped.

She gradually opened her eyes to a scene of emptiness. The only thing that was there now was the surrounding buildings, and also, she noticed a few seconds later, a figure of a man in the not-so-far distance. Many questions had begun to play on her mind, including where he came from, and why he was there. Before, the scene involved nothing more then large buildings and the occasional wind echoing, as well as the unnerving footsteps. There was one question that replayed itself more times than any other, and that was,

"Where was he earlier?"

Only just noticing that she had been kneeling down the whole time of the events, she tried to regain her composure. However, as hard as she tried, she could not stand. A pain in the lower abdominal area of her back seeped around her body, making her feel uneasy and slightly woozy. Still there was no one else in sight, as she tried to call for help. The pain restricted her to nothing more then a squeal as she tried desperately to figure out what had just happened.

She tried, although now starting to feel light headed, to examine her body for any possible cause of the pain, and soon found it as she pulled her uniform top around slightly. There was a thin slit-like hole, about an inch and a half long.

Now feeling even more scared, tried to think of any logical way this could have happened. The blood had made a fairly large area around the slit to dye a deeper shade of red, and was vastly growing. Panic ensued, as she could come up with no _form_ of an idea of how this happened. That, and also the fact that the pain and restriction was now unbearable.

Taking a deep breath, she fought the pain and opened her eyes, as they began to water at an alarming rate, fearing the worst. She could catch a glimpse of the figure, standing still but now facing in her direction, with seemingly a crazed smile on his face. With her last thoughts, she could not recognise him, as she let gravity pull her backwards onto the pavement. Her eyes slowly shut, losing the battle to keep them open. She exhaled a final time, before laying rigid and losing her pulse.

The school day had started, and to everyone's amazement Chiyo was not present. Her attendance record was one of the best in the school, with no absences so far, something that Yukari had bragged about to a very annoyed Nyamo frequently. Everyone had their own suspicions, including the homeroom teacher, but no one could think of a good enough reason for her not to be here.

Sakaki was sitting at her usual desk; however she was not looking out of the window. She was too preoccupied with the feeling she discovered walking home, and felt that it had some kind of link as to Chiyo's absence. At that precise moment, she could faintly hear the sirens of an ambulance in the distance.

As the absence of the child prodigy struck hard, the day went by fairly much in silence. It seemed unnerving, as though they were being watched. The day had met its end when the group had all met together to stay after school for revision.

"I wonder where Chiyo-Chan is..." Yomi said, with a hint of worry present.

"She's probably just ill, we all are at some stage!" replied Tomo, whereas the rest of the group had thought of this as the _best_ thing that could have happened. Silence ensued once again, as even Osaka remained quiet without the presence of Chiyo to correct her theories. Soon enough, Yukari had let the silence get to her.

"Would anyone like the radio on?" she asked, whilst pointing to an old radio that barely looked usable. The girls glanced over, yet the only one to react was Yomi, nodding her head in agreement. Worried about the mood, Yukari herself approached the radio to turn it on.

"Something doesn't feel right..." muttered Sakaki, although no one heard her.

"...Was there even a radio there before?" Osaka mustered, trying to lighten the mood. Her attempts were futile though, before she resumed her quiet stance. "I guess there was..."

The radio was turned on, after about five minutes of fiddling to get the right frequency. Immediately the day's news was broadcasted, featuring an article that hit them as directly as a brick wall.

"Today, a young girl has been found murdered at Bettesworth Road, she has been identified by witnesses as 'Chiyo Mihama'," recited the plastic box. This was all that had to be said for the girls to react in a mixed reaction of sadness and anger.

"Who could've done this!? Why..." shouted Sakaki, with everyone else's reaction not too different.

"Why would anyone want to do that...?" Yomi muttered, followed by Tomo crying into her arms like Victoria Falls.

"Who ever did this is gonna pay," groaned Kagura, raising her fist with perhaps the most serious expression ever to appear on her face. Osaka just stood there, showing no indication of whether this new, unwanted piece of information was received. After a few seconds however, tears began to flow down her cheeks, over her mask-like face. Her expression slowly turned to that of a mourner, before she buried her face in her hands.

Yukari had even received the message harshly, with her tear ducts beginning to well up. She raised her arm to wipe the tears away, before witnessing the group of girls all distraught over the recent death of a _loved_ one. Yukari, after seeing this, freely permitted her own tears to run down her cheeks.

(---)

A week passed. A painful week, but one nonetheless. The emotions experienced by the girls were too overpowering as they made their way to the funeral of a once great friend. Upon arrival, the steady stream of tears continued to flow, for what could be eternity. The speech was presented, as the coffin was lowered into the grave. Each girl, and their teachers, took their time to say their lasts words.

"Chiyo...You were one of my best students. Why did ya have to go now!? I'll miss having you around," said Yukari, on the verge of tears continuing to cascade.

"Although not very athletic, you were always cheery to be around. You...Yo-" was all that Nyamo could muster, before breaking down in a fit of sadness.

"You were the one that I liked to compare my grades to, but you were always a good friend. I'll never forget you..." recited Yomi, now turning away while facing the floor.

"I'm sorry, Chiyo. For always using you as a target for my actions. Please forgive me..." Tomo said, choking back the tears in the process.

"I've only been around you for a little while, but already I felt welcome. Thank you, Chiyo..." mused Kagura, trying to keep an optimistic smile on her face. She failed soon after, crying harshly.

"I thank you, Chiyo. All of my questions, and you helped me with them...Well, most of them. Either way, I hope you're happy where you are now..." Osaka paused, reflecting on all the times she had spent with her.

"I'm sorry, Chiyo. If I was there, I could have protected you...Please, forgive me..." pleaded Sakaki, the last of the girls, before intensely crying into her hands.

Minutes passed, as the whole crowd watched the grave and thought back to their memories. Each one had cried so much today that the redness overcame the pupils in their eyes, and sore skin lay underneath the eyes. As each person, one by one, started leaving, all of the girls stood together in a group, each supporting one another. Finally, they all stood to attention, and spoke clear.

"_Arigato, Chiyo Mihama_."

(-o-)

**Well, there you have it. Please could all readers review, as it makes me feel as though my stories actually get read. I don't think I'll be writing a story of this sort for a while...Anyway, thank you all for reading, and as per usual all reviews are welcome. Oh, and on a side note in case you may not know, _Arigato_ means 'thank you' in Japanese.**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Azumanga Daioh. I only own this fan fiction story.**_


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